Prior art relays of this type (EP 0 197 391 A2; U.S. Pat. No. 4,703,293 A; U.S. Pat. No. 6,107,903 A) include an electromagnetic system having at least a coil, a coil core, and two pole pieces defining two opposing ends of the relay. The relay housing has fixed contacts of the switches at the opposing ends of the relay. The movable contacts of the switches are located at the end of contact springs which are connected via conductive spring elements in the central region of the relay to a respective active current connection. Two parallel contact springs are provided, with a total of four contacts for actuating four switches which are located on the upper side of the relay in corner positions.
From U.S. Pat. No. 6,670,871 B1 a polarized relay is known, which comprises a main body including an electromagnet and current supply paths for the latter and for fixed contacts of switches, and an armature that is pivotally mounted to the main body by means of two torsion springs and which has two leaf springs with movable contacts on the ends thereof.
A permanent magnet having a respective pole on its upper side and on its lower side is secured to the armature with its upper side and follows the movements thereof. Power supply to the movable contacts is accomplished via each of the torsion springs and the leaf springs, so that a separate use as a diagnostic switch on one side of the relay and as a load switch on the other side of the relay is not possible.
In a known safety switch relay (DE 36 00 856 A1) a base body is provided which encloses the excitation coil in form of a trough and forms a contact chamber on each of the two sides, each of which contains a main contact which are actuated by an armature which is formed on the end of a yoke as a one-armed lever and has an additional lever arm at the free end, which actuates an additional auxiliary contact. The main contacts and the auxiliary contact are arranged on the bottom side of the relay, together with terminal pins.
DE 197 05 508 C1 discloses an electromagnetic relay with a three-pole permanent magnet which is interposed between the pole pieces of the coil core and has a rotary coupling surface on which a two-leg armature of the relay is mounted. Each armature end actuates, via an associated slider, a respective switch on the bottom side of the relay, where additionally the terminal pins are located.
From DE 38 37 092 A1 an adjustable relay is known, comprising a coil and a one-armed armature that extends transversely to an actuation coil end and actuates an actuator of switch contacts, which actuator extends longitudinally of the coil, and which switch contacts are located in a row along the coil end opposite the actuation coil end, together with terminal pins.
WO 93/23866 A1 discloses a polarized power relay including a rocking armature on the upper side of the relay and a set of contacts with contact spring on the bottom side of the relay. A movable slider of an insulating material couples one of the armature ends to the movable end of the contact spring to open or close the set of contact springs depending on the armature position. A diagnostic switch that provides information about the position of the armature is not provided.
In a polarized miniature relay (DE 2 148 177 A) a base plate with terminal pins is provided, on which two movable load contact springs can be actuated between fixed load contacts transversely to the plane of the base plate. For this purpose, a rocking armature supporting actuator pins is pivotally mounted in parallel to the plane of the base plate and cooperates with pole plates which angularly encompass the ends of a permanent magnet. A coil with two windings and a core is disposed adjacent to the rocking armature between the pole plates. A foil with coil connections connects the windings with associated terminal pins on the bottom side of the base plate. Because of the close proximity of the load contacts and the load contact springs to the coil connections attached to the foil, the dielectric strength of the relay is assumed to be low.